Germany’s unemployment decreased less-than-expected in June after a strong increase in the previous month, mirroring a slowing economy.
The seasonally adjusted number of unemployed persons fell by 1,000, preliminary data from the Federal Employment Agency showed on Monday. Economists had forecast a fall of 3,000.
The modest decline in June came after an unexpected 60,000 increase in May, which was the first rise in nearly two years.
“The weaker economic growth is leaving a slight mark on the labor market,” Detlef Scheele, CEO of the Federal Employment Agency said in Nuremberg.
“The number of jobs is at a high level and employment growth is losing momentum.”
The jobless rate was 5 percent in June, unchanged from May, and in line with economists’ expectations.
In May, the jobless rate had risen from the re-unification low of 4.9 percent logged in each of the previous two months and marked the first increase since November 2013.
Earlier on Monday, data from Destatis showed that the ILO jobless rate remained steady at 3.1 percent in May.
The non-seasonally adjusted unemployment decreased by 20,000 to 2.216 million persons in June, the Federal Employment Agency said.
The impact of the slowing economy was clearly evident in underemployment, the agency said.
The corresponding seasonally adjusted figure grew by 6,000 from the previous month to 3.172 million persons.
The number of vacancies remained high, but slowed noticeably. In June, 798,000 jobs were available, which was 8,000 fewer than the same month last year.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, the number of vacancies reported to the agency decreased by 4,000.
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